T&C Family Album

Athina Onassis

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As the Cannes Film Festival wrapped up its tents this weekend after an 11-day whirlwind of big gowns, controversial films, and missing Chopard jewels, we bring you an encore performance: the December 1958 cover of the first Mrs. Aristotle Onassis. Here she poses in a Jean Dessès robe de grand soir aboard the Christina for a special issue that chronicled the transformation of a cluster of sleepy villages into "a coast of dolce far niente, a playground of the gods, where the greatest care anyone has can be answered by another coat of sun tan cream." Sometimes we refer to it by its nickname, the Côte d'Azur. Jackie's predecessor, the original Mrs. O, was just one of many wealthy, beautiful, over-the-top personalities gravitating, then as now, to the world's glitziest waterfront for its festivals and fêtes, palatial hotels and marbled casinos, sunny skies, pristine beaches, and private yacht parties.

The Christina, purchased by Aristotle Onassis in 1954, was invariably the first choice for said parties, and the guest lists included Sir Winston Churchill, Monaco royals, Marilyn Monroe, and Maria Callas – the Greek diva whose operatic affair with Aristotle precipitated the couple's divorce. At the time, the Christina was the third largest yacht in the world. Today, she has fallen to the 28th slot—or 29th if we include the Azzam, the superyacht of the super secretive owner who recently eclipsed Roman Abramovich and his Eclipse in the toy boat competition.

At this year's festival, too, filmmakers regaled us with more tales of wealth and conspicuous consumption, with Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, and Steven Soderbergh's Behind the Candelabra, all reminding us that, in film as in life, moderation is a fatal thing and nothing succeeds like excess.